


Three Mornings a Month

by Mireille



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Community: femslash_minis, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-12
Updated: 2005-11-12
Packaged: 2019-03-11 16:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13527846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: Some nights it's actually pretty easy. Some nights it's not.





	Three Mornings a Month

Some nights--mostly in the summer, when the nights are short--it's actually pretty easy. If she gets home in time, she pops four Benadryl (screw the package directions; she's a _werewolf_ ) before she goes into the cage, and before the moon's up, she's zonked out on the floor. Usually the wolf doesn't wake up either, and in the morning, Faith rolls her eyes and tells her she's the most boring werewolf in the history of silver bullets. 

"Then you change back," Faith says, with that smirk Nina's never quite sure how to interpret, "and at least you're more fun to look at." Nina can't believe, after this many years of waking up naked on the floor of a cage three nights a month, that she can still blush. 

Faith unlocks the door. Nina slips on the robe hanging just outside the cage and wonders if Faith looks through the rest of the apartment at night, and, if she does, whether she's noticed that there's a perfectly good terrycloth robe hanging on the back of the bedroom door. 

This one is Chinese silk, and only comes halfway down Nina's thighs. Realizing that Faith probably does know there's a ratty blue bathrobe Nina _could_ have worn makes her feel more exposed than waking up on the floor naked does, and she flushes again. 

Now she's sure there's at least some interest behind the smirk, so Nina looks Faith right in the eye and says, "You know, since you're coming back tonight, you might as well just crash here."

"Yeah. No offense, Nina, but I don't think much of your spare room," Faith says, and Nina can't blame her there. There's the cage in the corner, and the chair, table, and cheap TV/VCR combo she had put in for Faith--well, at the time, it was "for whoever I can trust enough to hire them to let me out in the morning," but it turned out to be for Faith--and that's it. She hasn't even repainted the walls in here; she keeps the door closed twenty-five days out of every twenty-eight. 

"Then it's a good thing I'm not expecting you to stay in here," Nina says, and when Faith gets it, leads her off to prove that she's a lot more interesting as a woman than as a werewolf. 

***

Some nights it's not. 

Nina doesn't remember, of course, but she wakes up with scratches and bruises and the occasional bite-mark, and this morning, a sore place on her hip from where Faith shot her with the tranq gun. "You were howling and throwing yourself at the bars," Faith says, shrugging, when Nina gives her a questioning look. 

She's exhausted, and everything aches, and she's still muzzy from the tranquilizers, which is probably why she can feel herself trembling. It's definitely why she can feel herself trembling. She got over being freaked out by this years ago, remember? 

But she _bit_ herself, deeply enough that Faith has gauze and peroxide and Neosporin at the ready when Nina comes out of the cage, and all she wants to do is sink into a hot bath and not think about this. She can't even bring herself to offer Faith breakfast, or ask her if she's in the mood to stay. 

Faith's not going to be in the mood to stay, not when Nina's this shaky and feeling on the verge of tears. Faith's not really a "comfort" sort of person. 

So Nina just goes off into the bathroom, and doesn't come out until she's completely waterlogged and she's soaked the worst of the aches out of her muscles. She stumbles into her bedroom, and she's so tired that she's almost at the bed before she realizes that Faith's in it. 

"Breakfast," Faith says cheerfully, holding up a box of Pop-Tarts that Nina thinks she bought when she first moved in, when she thought she might have Amanda come and visit her here. 

"Those are, like, five years old," Nina says, waving them away. Then, more seriously, "You stayed?" 

Faith shrugs a little. "I'm not passing up free room and board," she says. Nina doesn't push it. It was a year before she knew Faith's last name; she can't imagine how long you'd have to know Faith before she said something _important_. 

But Faith is here, cheerfully eating stale Pop-Tarts with a gusto that has Nina envying Slayer metabolism, and that says... something. Nina knows she's not the only person in Faith's life. They only see each other three days a month--and half of that time, Nina's not even human--and that's not going to change. 

Faith's here now, though, putting down the Pop-Tart and brushing crumbs off her chest, and that's definitely something. "Besides," she says, "I shot you in the ass with a tranquilizer. The least I can do's kiss it and make it better."

"I just want to sleep," Nina apologizes, flopping down on the bed and burying her face in the pillow. 

"So sleep," Faith says, running a hand down Nina's back. "I'll take a nap, maybe grab a shower, no problem." 

When Nina wakes up, Faith's flipping through a magazine, her hair still wet from her shower. She drops the magazine when she sees that Nina's awake, though, grinning at her. "Still got six hours till moonrise," she says. 

Faith keeps up with the time, even while she's making Nina shudder and writhe and forget everything about the night before. That comforts Nina; Faith isn't going to let her hurt anyone. And even if the wolf gets loose, Faith's one of the few people who could stop her.

And if Nina gets a couple of scrapes and bruises along the way, Faith can usually be encouraged to kiss them better.

**Author's Note:**

> [me on tumblr](https://mireille719.tumblr.com)


End file.
